'Angels' and 'The Hulk'
Disappoint Hollywood

By

John Lippman Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Updated June 30, 2003 12:01 a.m. ET

Hollywood's strategy of banking on "franchise" movies to easily win over large audiences started to buckle this past weekend as two of the summer's most expensive and hyped movies collapsed at the box office, leaving studio executives surprised and disappointed.

The sequel "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" opened Friday and sold only $38 million in U.S. tickets, a stunning $2 million below what the original "Charlie's Angels" movie sold in its November 2000 opening. And ticket sales for...